Garter Snake

 

Love those muted blues and grays complementing that electric green! The yarn company called this color scheme "Garden Maze," and that is a lovely name. But it just didn't quite work for me, so I decided to call this exactly what it reminds me of - a snake! This scarf is so big, bulky, and heavy... it is more anaconda than garter snake. Ah, but those amazing colors! They have a sweetness about their combination that says friendly Garter Snake.  

The body of the scarf is row after row of single crochet, a super easy pattern that shows off the stitch detail. It holds its shape firmly, and is surprisingly soft. The category of yarn is "Thick & Quick," and I was worried at first that it might make an itchy, rough scarf. It looks so heavy and coarse. It does make for a heavy scarf, but it is not coarse at all! 

The yarn of the body is a superbulky weight, while the edge, ruffles, and fringe are all medium weight. I used a size N crochet hook for the body, and size K for all the trimmings. That contrast of weights makes for good fun in posing this piece. It rolls up perfectly and looks so nice at the foot of a bed.

I had way too much fun adding ruffles and more ruffles. Both sides got a double ruffle, one gray and one green. I practiced a couple of variations in ruffle stitch combinations, just to see how it played out on each edge. For example, I tried an alternating 2-3-2-3 ruffle (two stitches in one base stitch, then three stitches in the next base stitch), and that looks interesting. Can't go wrong with ruffles. Even an experimental ruffle looks delightful.

Fun with fringe! I love adding fringe. It is a lot of work, very slow going. But always worth it in the end. This big beast was so bulky, I decided to add another layer of fringe. That means, I put one set of fringe through one side of the end stitch, and then I went back and put a second set of fringe on the other side of the end stitch. Whew. That is a lot of fringe. A labor of love. And absolutely worth it.  

With double the ruffles, and double the fringe, all those fun trimmings took longer to create than the scarf itself. In fact, because the body of of the scarf is a super bulky weight yarn, it worked up fast and easy. That left plenty of hours left over for the colorful fun of fringe'y, ruffle'y details. 

Colorful Fun + Ruffles + Fringe = Creative Crochet